The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1887-03-05
EDITORIAL Brtets.
BYiREv. I. n. ATWOOD. D. D.
Canton. N. Y.

promptly answers. And what is "the
good you have in mind? If you mean by
this term the production of real goodness,
4. e., divine goodness, in human society,
you are correct. A religion which does
not have perceptible influence in max
ing men just, pure and true, is certainly
worthless. No fair critic will deny that
every variety of the Christian religion
produces this effect more or less Opin-
ions will differ as to which varieties are
most effective, but each one would like
to have the best. The best for him may
not be the best for all others. This is
the principle of toleration.
And what is it in religion that makes
it do good? There are some who answer,
its rules and observances. It keeps peo-
pie innocently occupied, and it keeps
them in leading. strings. Others say, it's
moral inculcations. Still others, its doc
trines and sanctions. But we question
whether religion could effect much in
any OF these ways if it was rot always
bearing in upon the souls of men the
conviction and consciousness of God.
This is the heart Of religion, M. Compile
to the contrary, outstanding. There
must be enough who are alive to God
whether dead to the world OF MOTTO in
spire church, or that church's religion
is vain.
1t seems Incredible that " in the
United States there is one ieil-bird in ev-
cry S37 of our population, while in En-
gland there is one in every 18,000," as we
read in the Boston Herald, which gets
its figures from Rev. Prof. Allen. If this
is fact, or if anything like it is the fact,
national commission of inquiry into our
prisons and criminal systems is urgently
needed. After we have rendered every
excuse for ourselves that wit can devise,
the balance against us would still be
appalling.
Mr.. Allen finds the principal explain
alton of these startling figures in the diff
ferent methods pursued with criminals
in this country and England. 1t has be-
come general practice in England to
make the punishment of a criminal con-
duce to his reformation; in this country
the general practice is the other way. We
have few reformatories, and in most of
the great cities there is at least one small
association of benevolent people who are
trying TO do something for the moral i'm
provement of prisoners. But we have no
public system of that kind, and we appear
to lack the Christian conviction that
would support it. We are 80 slow in
learning that the State is not saved by
Furnishing criminals, but by reforming
them.
The Christian Register makes spir-
tied and successful defense of Cotton
Mather against the charge of insincerity
brought against him by Brooks Adams:
albeit the reader begins to feel before he
has finished the article, that the editor is
rather more anxious to fix the charge Of
superstition on living ministers than to
cleanse from the charge of duplieity the
memory of dead one. But the point ia
we'll taken, that we cannot assume the
insincerity of a man who processes faith
IN absurdities on the ground that he
knows too much to believe in them. The
Register justly remarks: "A large volume
might be written on the euperstitions Of
the educated"
We ara not favorably impressed by
the attitude of those editors who think
the interference of the pope and the arch
bishop with DR.. McGlynn's politics a
fine thing because they interposed on the
side of sound political economy. 1t is
the interference We object to. When it
suits the interests, temporal or spiritual,
of the hierarchy, it will as certainly inter
pose on the wrong side. The only safety
is in excluding that influence utterly
from our politics. Just SO long as it
counts for anything, politicians will COM
pete for it, and the bad politician can
always outbid the good one. The eulo-
gles of the pope and of Archbishop Cor
rlgan IN some OF our esteemed contem-
porarles affect healthy stomach with
nausea.
"A genuine infatuation seems 10 have
taken possession of considerable por-
tion of the Congregational body. The
Prudential Committee, and the Conqre-
gdtionaiist and the Advance, and latter
ly, as Of one converted ont of due time,
the Independent, are quite carried away
with the delusion that if they only stamp
and shout loud enough the ghost of sec
ond probation will down. They are sup
ported in their delusion by the whole
Evangelical group. With one consent.
Baptiste, Methodists, Presbyterian, Lu-
theran and Reformed papers unite in
declaring how shocked they are at the
Andover speculations, and how important
1t is that the Congregational body should
put the largest sized extinguisher on the
rush light of heresy that family glimmers
in the East.
We wish them complete success. Let
them crush out the heresy and silence it.
Let the Monday Leetureship set its ele-
phantine foot upon it. Then it will ap-
pear how grim and relentless orthodoxy
is. In recent years it has been growing
comely and gentle so that it has often
been mistaken for Christianity itself. n
it would only declare itself for Just what
1t is, such mistake would be impossible.
Intrinsically and essentially orthodoxy is
infernal-yes, that the word, it is infer